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A Light in Our Darkness
The longest night of the year has passed, but while the light is increasing, it remains so incremental it appears as though the darkness outside is triumphing. By the third day of January, the hangovers have arrived. Not just the self-inflicted suffering of many on New Year’s Eve, but also the financial hangovers of the irrational exuberance of Christmas. Only a few more days and the darkness of January bills will be casting a pall over many homes. Add to all this the darkness of illness and injury, sorrow and loss, and even in this season there is plenty of pain and anxiety to go around.
Still, the promise of hope comes to us this day, not in the form of an infant as on Christmas Eve but in the form of light. We celebrate the pure radiant light that cuts through the darkness of this world and shines into shadow-filled lives. It is the light that shines through the love broken and poured in bread and wine. It is the light of the holy presence of Christ in times of confusion and despair. It is the light of grace and truth shining into lives young and old, rich and poor, broken and whole.
It is the light of Christ that sends people like John the Baptist into this world, people who dedicate their lives to pointing others toward Jesus. Some days we are privileged to play this role for others, reminding them of Jesus. Other days we need John the Baptist to tell us the story one more time. We need people like John to point our eyes toward the light, undiminished by time, so that we can see clearly the promise of Jesus in our lives, our communities and our world.
Gospel: John 1:[1-9] 10-18
John begins his gospel with this prologue: a hymn to the Word through whom all things were created. This Word became flesh and brought grace and truth to the world.
[1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.]
10He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
14And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. 15(John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ ”) 16From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.